A Letter to EA and to all the community sites

[1WEiRDguy]

i can get down with this letter...good job

[boxboy99]

I just read the article at Utopia. The article 100% reflects how I feel as an EA customer. Bravo to OS if they allow this article to remain on the forum. I feel these words should be available for all in the community to see.

[uclabruins4ever]

Quote: Originally Posted by mr janny

This. Some good points made in the letter, surrounded by a whole lot of whining, which really dampens its effectiveness. The solution is, and always has been, "Don't like it. Don't buy it." Nobody is forcing us to fork over 60 dollars. And what is the expected endgame? Do they really expect EA to read the letter, and suddenly give up exclusivity rights? It's very simple. If you are dissatisfied, DON'T GIVE THEM YOUR MONEY. But, by continuing to buy the game and complain every year, you will not affect change.

Couple things:

1 - Easy to say "don't like it, don't buy it" with many products, but when it's for something that you CANNOT get a refund for after you've opened it at 90% of retailers, it's a bit of a different story.

2 - The letter and the community whining should be considered fair warning by EA Sports that their exclusivity agreement is going to end up costing them in the long term if it continues to result in inferior products. I'm not talking just drop in sales (which I'm betting they see next year) but they are easily opening themselves up to class action litigation by PO'd customers who feel ripped off. It isn't hard to make the anti-competitive argument when they are the only game in town.

Instead of putting their head in the sand and putting out press releases patting themselves on the back for the sake of shareholders, they should heed the warning signs.

In business, the bottom line is all that matters but developing a bad reputation can start to have serious consequences on that bottom line that are very difficult to recover from. They need to be wary when the voices are getting as loud as they are.

[fcboiler87]

Impressive. Very well written and spot on with your analysis.

[youALREADYknow]

Utopia/NCAAS +1

[mike24forever]

If people feel so strongly about the lack of quality in EA products, do as a poster above does...do not buy their games. No other NFL titles, oh well! That's the world we live in. However, to continue buying a title that you do not like and you feel has not gotten better is, for lack of a better word..."insane"! You know, doing the same thing over and over, and expecting a different outcome.

I love playing video games, but to get this emotionally involved, it maybe time to do some re-evaluating of one's priorities. This "anti/I hate EA thing" is getting very tiresome. I have had experiences with games not working, any of you remember the MLB The Show on the PS2 that kept freezing. People on OS were at the point that they were dipping the disc in boiling water to get it to work. I did not go off on the company, I just stopped buying the game, until I felt the game was better. Did I make the company make a better game by not buying the game, nope! I just avoided the potential for aggravation.

Consumers true power, comes from their wallets. Not crying on message boards. Especially ones that EA does not own.

[Earl1963]

Didn't read all of it, but what I read I agree. Will finish reading when I'm more awake.

Sometimes I wish a japanese company would make our football games, those guys know how to make games right. No offense it's just the way it is.

[Dr Death]

It's funny... I read the OP's post and was the first to "like" it and then after an hour or so I came back to read any responses... and whilst reading through the responses I had the Black Crowes on and the song playing... was You Don't Miss Your Water {Until Your Well Runs Dry}

Very apt song for this thread... I think it's going to be very interesting next March when the Hype-Machine rolls out and how many people just say... Yeah, sure... whatever.

EA has a MASSIVE hill to climb to get back a lot of customers and they may have the market cornered on football games, but a lot of people just won't fall for the hype anymore. Trust is essential in any relationship, be it parent/child, boyfriend/girlfriend, husband/wife or consumer/company.

And EA has all but destroyed the trust factor w/ this latest release and all of its incessant problems. My advice... which EA will never follow... don't release a game next year. Instead... fix '12 so it's completely playable and all the new features work as advertised and then... get a completely new engine and rebuild the game from the ground up.

In 2013 you can release '14 and have everything working smoothly and also develop a way to include any and all new uniforms throughout the season.

I know it won't happen... but that's what should be done.